E-Eval
Learnings from a Community-Based Evaluation Capacity Building Initiative
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3138/cjpe-2023-0025Keywords:
evaluation capacity building, community-based, social-serving sector, mentoring, E-EvalAbstract
Evaluation capacity building (ECB) initiatives are important for supporting social-serving organizations in using evaluation to demonstrate and improve the effectiveness of their programs. In this practice note, the authors present their experience developing and implementing E-Eval, a responsive community-based course for building evaluation capacity in Alberta’s mentoring sector. In order to support others in taking a similar approach to building evaluation capacity in the social-serving sector, they describe how the concept of E-Eval emerged, outline its design and implementation processes, and discuss their learnings and their relevance for other professionals implementing or researching community-based ECB.
References
Alberta Mentoring Partnership. (n.d.). About AMP. Retrieved January 13, 2023, from https://albertamentors.ca/about-amp/
Bakken, L. L., Núñez, J., & Couture, C. (2014). A course model for building evaluation capacity through a university-community partnership. American Journal of Evaluation, 35(4), 579–593.
Bourgeois, I., Lemire, S. T., Fierro, L. A., Castleman, A. M., & Cho, M. (2023). Laying a solid foundation for the next generation of evaluation capacity building: Findings from an integrative review. American Journal of Evaluation. Advance online publication.
Carman, J. G. (2007). Evaluation practice among community-based organizations: Research into the reality. American Journal of Evaluation, 28(1), 60–75.
Cousins, J. B., Goh, S. C., Elliott, C. J., & Bourgeois, I. (2014). Framing the capacity to do and use evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 2014(141), 7–23.
El Hassar, B., Poth, C., Gokiert, R., & Bulut, O. (2021). Toward an evidence-based approach to building evaluation capacity. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 36(1), 82–94.
Gauthier, B., Barrington, G. V., Bozzo, S. L., Chaytor, K., Dignard, A., Lahey, R., Malatest, R., McDavid, J. C., Mason, G., Mayne, J., Porteous, N. L., & Roy, S. (2010). The lay of the land: Evaluation practice in Canada in 2009. The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 24(1), 1–49.
Gokiert, R.J., Poth, C., Kingsley, B., El Hassar, B., & Mejia, T. (2022). Responding to the evaluation capacity needs of the early childhood field: Insights from a mixed methods community-based participatory design. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 36(3), 287–315.
Gokiert, R. J., Daniels, J., Poth, C., Karbabian, A., Peacock, D., Springett, J., Cor, K., Williamson, D., Wallace, E., Freeborn, C., Taylor, M., Jun, S., Brazil, J., Pittman, S., Diamond, A., & Popescu, C. (2021). UEval: Bringing community-based experiential learning to the evaluation classroom. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 35(3), 282–295.
Gokiert, R. J., Kingsley, B. C., Poth, C., El Hassar, B., Tink, L. N., Tremblay, M., Cor, K., Springett, J., & Hopkins, S. (2017). Developing an evaluation capacity building network in the field of early childhood development. Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning, 3(2), 59–80.
Janzen, R., Ochocka, J., Turner, L., Cook, T., Franklin, M., & Deichert, D. (2017). Building a community-based culture of evaluation. Evaluation and Program Planning, 65, 163–170.
King, J. A. (2020). Putting evaluation capacity building in context: Reflections on the Ontario Brain Institute’s Evaluation Support Program. Evaluation and Program Planning, 80, Article 101452.
Nuckles, C. R. (2000). Student-centered teaching: Making it work. Adult Learning, 11(4), 5–6.
Preskill, H., & Boyle, S. (2008). A multidisciplinary model of evaluation capacity building. American Journal of Evaluation, 29(4), 443–459.
Puinean, G., Gokiert, R., Taylor, M., Jun, S., & de Vos, P. (2022). Evaluation in the field of early childhood development: A scoping review. Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 22(2), 63–89.
Robertson, A. D., Atkins, L. J., Levin, D. M., & Richards, J. (2015). What is responsive teaching? In A. D. Robertson, R. Scherr, & D. Hammer (Eds.), Responsive teaching in science and mathematics (pp. 1–35). Routledge.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Kirsty M. Choquette, Jenae Gauthier, Jason S. Daniels, Rebecca J. Gokiert, Alberta Mentoring Partnership

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 (CC-BY-NC) license. This licence allows this work to be copied, distributed, remixed, transformed, and built upon for any purpose provided that appropriate attribution is given, a link is provided to the license, and changes made were indicated.
Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal right of first publication.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.





